Bottle carrier



the surfaces 53; and 64: is: such that mm!- ment; of the handle 612ithroughan anglefofxapproximat'ely 180E degreesxwillz'efiect mdvemmt. otthe frame legs between their lithitposittoms:

The slope of the surfaces 63 and 64 is alsnfsuch that the frictionalresistance theize'between will prevent automatic: separationl ot thelegs M and 31 and when once sheet piece such as 53. is clamped. between:the feeding: rolls MI and H. I

The tool means provided for eitectin-g the opening of the seam lockaccording to the: first modification of the invention cenipri'se's, apair of similar relatively discs HI and M niQUnted for free rotationupon. am otfsetiend portion l2 of a shaft"- I 3 The disc si'TlF and: Elare prererably provided with oppositely extending hub portions F4 and.15, providing enlarged beai 'ing surfaces therefor respect'to theshafit portion if. The discs FB-andi'lf arepi'eferably of hardenedsteel, relatively thin at their edges; and beveled outwardly toward tlieir centers to: a thickness somewhat greater than at their edgesPreferably, the angle of "bevel is somewhat and-flit the upper:extremity or the standing edge 7 will be: therebetween; Because of the.fact that theistanding edge: will be' varioushrr deformed negard t its'alfgm'nent the: main body of the: piece.- 53', the supporting shaft fifor the. disc tools may belongitudihal'ly. adjusted through the frame-Lleg II: as necessary as: the" discs l'fl 'andl H- are lowered. Followinginitial entry or the upper edge oi the. sheet metals. piece: between thediscs, Ill. and H, acontihued force applied to the handle- 84- willforce the discs Tll an'd. H- downwardly until one of the-disc's reaches.thebottom ofthe pocket, 'alsoiforcing the: standing edge portion; of thelook: into agparall'el; alignment with the h andsismultaneously wedging;thefolded: wall poi'tion'. of"; the. lock outwardly into the properspaced relation. with. respect. to the standing' edge. portion,Preferab1y,. the, angle of bevel om the outer side: of the di'scsissuchthat when greater on the hubs side's of the discsithan on 1 the facesides substantially-as illustrated the fragmentary enlarged View of Fig}"3 The discs IB- and H may be biased towards each other by means of acompression spring 1G arranged about the outer end of the shaft portion12 between the stop washer IT and nut [8.

The.

outer end of the shaft portion?! is provided with a flattened side andwasher 1 with a teoperatively shaped opening so as to-prevent'rtm tionof the disc hub 14' from; automatically unscrewing the nut 18. Byadjusting the nut-1B, the degree of separationbetween discs} F0 and Hcan be controlled for different weights of metal. f

The shaft portion [2 supporting the disc's M and H is secured'eccentri'cally ontothe endoi the shaft portion 13 whichis jburnaledwithin a cooperating bore" provided through the frame leg 31. Mounted onthe outer end of thesha-ft i3 is a manual adjusting'handle 81 by" meansof which the shaft 1-3" may be rotated forraising or lowering-.discsl-fland H with relation to the edge of the sheet metal piececlamped betweenthe" feed rolls 4U andl ll The shaft 13,1in

addition to being freely rotatable within the frame leg 3 l isalsolongitudinallyslidable the're through. in order to facilitate theadjustment of the disc tools. into theoperative position with respectto" the standing edge of the sheet metal seam lock. The shaft T3includesan' enlarged portion 82 between the shaft: portions Hand [3providing shoulders 83 and. on the opposite ends thereof. The shoulder'83 provides a thrust bearing surface for. the hub. 15 of thedisc toolTI, while shoulder 84 provides a stop for. limiting axial movement ofthe shaft l3 through the frame leg 3| to theright, asviewed in Fig. 1. I

In Fig. 3- the disc tools 10 and 11' are shown. in the elevatedposition, in which position they are placed during the clamping'of thesheetmetal member 53 between the feed rolls El! and Ail. To lower thedisc tools"! and H to the. operative position, the handle M is rotatedin the proper di= rection, counterclockwise as viewed in the end view ofFig. 2". Because of the bevel of-the'fac ing surfaces of the disc tools,the peripheral: edges thereof are spaced apart a. distance somewhatgreater than the thickness of the. meta? of the piece 53, so that uponlowering" of the discs 10 one otithe". discs, asa'lllg. forceddownwardlt to the bottom of therpocket, the:- folded' wall portion'allel spacedzrelationr therewith. With the disc tools 10 and H loweredto? the'operative position as illustratedin'Fig. 1,. the. sheet metalpiece 53 7 may be: fed through. the" machine by rotation of the. hamctcrank 51:; The disc.- tools. 10' and H will be retained theirloweredposition as the sheet metal member isfed through the machine by; virtueof the fact that the forceapplied thereagainst isin the reversedirection of rotation withrespect to the supporting shaft 1:31 to thatrequired? for effecting: upward movement of these discs.- In order tolimit. downward movement of. thedisc toolsliil and? I la to: the; depth:of the pocketv in the sheet metal-L member 53; a screw 8-5ais provided.in the handle; 81:, the. lower'end; of which is adapted to, buttiagainstra stop &61 provided; on the; outer side-wallofthe frame legf3 Iasshown more clean ly'instheaendviewof Fig.2; iFcrguiding-thenmvem'ent.otthe upper edge of the sheet: metal pieces53;through the machine in a predetermined straight: line a. pair of.guides, or gauges;. 8:1- and: 8-8 mounted in: bosses 89' and 90 on theopposite sides of the. frame 'leg 31: extend across. the: front and rearsides-of themaohine in parallet horizontal alignment withthe'upper edgeof the sheet metal. piece 53.. These gauges may be adjusted. by means ofsuitable set screws provided: the bosses 89 and 99; respectively;

disc: tools [0? and: H are readily removable from the end of the shaftportion I2 by simply removing the: nut-l8gspring 15;. and washer 11 forreplacement with otherrt'ools. or difieren t sizes. as may required,depending upon the particular weight of metal being worked uportorcurvature or the sheet. A seconds-tyl'e of toolswill' presently hedescribed.

once the discs m andl-l are-shifted to the 0pei'ati ve' position asshown Fig. the sheet metat piece 53 may be fed through the machine at arelatively high rate of speed, whereupon the sears lockii's madeiii-readiness for assembling into the final structure. The standingedge-portion is straightened out smoothly and in: parallel alignmentwiththe main body of" the-sheet metal piece, and the folded wall portion iswedged out into a substantially parallel spaced relation with re spect'to the standing edge; 7 It will he -noted that while the discIII-act'sas" a wedgefor epening'tl ie lock pocket, it also acts as anironerto smoothen the standihg" edge against the cooperating.backingdlsc 1 1-. "while it not essential it'j is preferried that thediscsw a-rid' 'fl be or substantially Patented Nov. 16, 1943 BOTTLECARRIER Bertis F. Hamilton, Columbus, Ind., assignor to Noblitt-SparksIndustries,

Inc., Columbus,

Ind., a corporation of Indiana Application August 5, 1939, Serial No.288,491

4 Claims. (Cl. 224-48) The present invention relates to improvements inthe bottle carrier illustrated and described in the co-pendingapplication of 'Nell Hamilton, Serial No. 224,175, filed August 10,1938, issued Sept. 16, 1941, as Patent No. 2,256,451. That bottlecarrier comprises a rigid bottom, sides hingedly connected thereto, andyokes which are mounted on the sides and which, when the carrier iserected, co-operate to form a handle by which the carrier and itscontents may be'carried.

It is the primary object of the present invention to produce a bottlecarrier of this type in which accidental removal of the bottles from thecarrier is positively prevented. A further object of the invention is toimprove and simplify the construction of the carrier.

The accompanying drawing illustrates my invention: Fig. 1 is an endelevation of the improved carrier; Fig. 2 is a horizontal'section on theline 22 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a 'fragmental view similar to Fig. 2but on an enlarged scale and with portions of the device broken away.

The carrier illustrated comprises a rigid bottom comprising two spacedside members 15 interconnected by a series of transversely extendingmembers iii. The ends of the cross members l6 are oiiset upwardly andsecured, as by welding, to the side members '15. The sides of thecarrier are formed of pieces of sheet metal 11 hingedly connectedrespectively to the two'side members i of thebottom, such hingedconnection desirably being effected by providing each side l1 along,

its lower edge with a series of ears 18 which are bent to embrace theassociated side member l5. At their vertical margins, the sides I! areprovided with inwardly projecting, generally oblique extensions l9, theextreme inner edges of which are rolled inwardly to provide tubularguides 20.

The guides 26 of each side slidably receive the lower ends of two legsof a generally U-shaped yoke 25, such yokes being arranged so that theirupper ends will co-operate to form a carrying handle, upward movement ofthe yokes in the guides being limited as by bending the yoke ends asindicated at 25. In the arrangement illustrated, one yoke is formed sothat it may be passed through the other, the legsof the yoke beingprovided with opposed ofiset portions 25 which serve resiliently to lockthe yokes in crossed relation. Because of the slidable mounting of theyokes in the tubular guides 20, they may be moved between the full-lineposition and the dotted-line position illustrated in Fig. 1. When in thefull-line position, thehandleforming portions of the yokes are above thetops of the bottles 21 in the carrier, so that those bottles do notinterfere with the insertion of the fingers beneath the handle. When,however, the yokes are moved to the dotted-line position shown in Fig.2, the handle-forming portions of the yokes lie below the tops of thebottles so as not to, interfere with the stacking of a series ofcarriers each full of bottles.

As so far described, the carrier is essentially the same as that shownand'described in-the copending application above referred to. Inembodying the present invention in such a carrier, the oblique endportions 19 of the carrier sides are so shaped that when the yokes 25are interlocked the two tubular guides 20 at each end of the carrierwill converge upwardly toward each other. As a result of thisconvergence, movement of the yoke from the full-line to the dotted-lineposition shown in Fig. 1 will cause the upper edges of the sides l! toswing inwardly. As shown, the upper edge of each carrier side is rolledinto an inwardly projecting bead 28 which is disposed slightly above themaximum diameter of the bottles 21 with which the carrier is to befilled. Desirably, the device is so proportioned with regard to the sizeand shape of the bottles it is to convey that when the handle is in thedottedline position shown in Fig. 1 it will engage the bottles in thetwo rows and force them together, thus preventing rattling of thebottles and thereby decreasing the possibilities of breakage. Moreoversince the beads 28 engage the bottles at points above the maximumdiameter thereof, removal of any bottle from the carrier cannot occurwhen the yokes 25 are depressed. When, however, the yokes are movedupwardly to the position in which they are adapted to serve as a Icarrying handle, the beads 28 of the upper edges of the sides I! will bemoved outwardly far enough to permit the bottles to be removed.

I claim as my invention:

1. A bottle-carrier, comprising a bottle-supporting bottom and oppositesides swingable relatively to said bottom, a carrying bail for saidcarrier, said bail having portions associated respectively with saidsides, said sides being provided withguides slidablyreceiving saidbailportions, the guides on opposite sides being disposed to convergeupwardly, whereby upward movement of said bail in said guides will causethe upper edges of said sides to move away from each other.

2. A bottle-carrier, comprising a bottle-supporting bottom, sidespivotally connected to said bottom along opposite sides thereof, yokesrespecengaging with each of the oppositesides of the ward and away fromsaid sheet metal :member, standing edge of the lock, one of said toolelements spring means on;-said shaft resiliently biasing said beingadapted to extend intotthe lock pocket subtools together, and means formaintaining said stantially the full depth thereof forefi'ecting thetools in ga-predetermined aligned position as reopening of saidpocket,'a shaft journaled in said 5 gards the path of movement of saidsheet metal frame, said tools being eccentrically supported onmemberthroughsaid machine. said shaft whereby said tools may bevshiftedtoe z CONRAD H; GREBE.

